AUTOMAKERS
Ghosn may see new charges
Tokyo prosecutors are preparing to build a fresh case against ousted Nissan Motor Co chairman Carlos Ghosn over suspect payments the automaker made to a business partner in Oman, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. They are in discussions with the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office and others, and plan to make a decision soon on whether to prosecute Ghosn on further charges of aggravated breach of trust, the newspaper said, citing sources involved in the case. Ghosn’s spokesman has previously said payments of US$32 million made over nine years were rewards for the Oman firm being a top Nissan dealer. Such dealer incentives were not directed by Ghosn and the funds were not used to pay any personal debt, the spokesman said. Ghosn promised to “tell the truth” at a news conference on Thursday next week, taking to Twitter to announce his first briefing since being released on bail and hours after a report that prosecutors were preparing a fresh case against him.
TRANSPORTATION
Chopper ride-sharing offered
A new start-up may have the answer for cashed-up travelers desperate to beat the gridlock in Southeast Asia’s mega cities: helicopter ride-sharing. Ascent Flights Global Pte is starting the service in the Philippines next week, and plans to expand to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia next year. The Singapore-based firm lets clients book a seat on a helicopter online for flights during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Targeting executives and luxury travelers, the choppers fly to the Makati and Taguig business districts, as well as airports in Metro Manila and Clark, Angeles. The shortest flight between the two business districts cuts travel time from half an hour to 3 minutes, with seats going for 6,900 pesos (US$133) each. The longest flight between the two airports would cost 25,900 pesos for a 30-minute trip that would usually take three hours by road.
UNITED KINGDOM
Services contract in March
The services sector contracted last month for the first time in more than two-and-a-haf years as Brexit turmoil prompted companies and households to hold back spending. IHS Markit’s purchasing managers index dropped to 48.9 from 51.3 in February. A modest slowdown to 50.9 had been forecast in a Bloomberg survey. The slide indicates that the economy shrank last month and stalled over the first quarter, with a risk that the slump deepens in the coming months, Markit said. Both services and construction are in decline, while manufacturing was buoyed by stockpiling, limiting the drop in the composite gauge to 50. New orders deteriorated for a third month, the longest fall in sales volumes since 2009. Export demand was especially weak.
CURRENCIES
Bitcoin hits fresh high
Bitcoin yesterday climbed to a fresh high this year, building on a spike yesterday that many market participants struggled to explain. It increased as much as 5.9 percent to US$5,087.54 at 9:47am in London, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Rivals coins, including Bitcoin Cash and Ether, also advanced. With the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index up more than 70 percent from its low during the depths of last year’s crash, the debate over whether virtual currency prices have bottomed is heating up. Crypto diehards see the surge as confirmation that a new bull market has begun, while bears argue that entrenched skepticism among regulators, institutional investors and consumers would make any rally temporary.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”